Female spikelets are produced both in the axils of leaves along the main stem and at the ends of the main branches where male spikelets terminate the spike.Photograph by: Matt Lavin
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

Female spikelets are produced both in the axils of leaves along the main stem and at the ends of the main branches where male spikelets terminate the spike.Photograph by: Matt Lavin
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

General Information

Zea diploperennis is a robust, clump-forming, perennial grass with short rhizomes. The erect culms are 100 - 250cm tall and 10 - 20mm in diameter.
The plant is a wild relative of the cultivated maize (Zea mays). Its edible seed is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southern N. America - southern Mexico.

Habitat

Found in one small area only, growing with tall grass and herbs along small streams in a region of Pinus-Quercus-Carpinus forest at elevations of 2,000 metres or more

Properties

Edibility Rating

Habit

Perennial

Height

1.50 m

Pollinators

Wind

Cultivation Status

Wild

Cultivation Details

The plant has resistance to various viruses that afflict cultivated maize (Zea mays). It has the same number of chromosomes as maize (20), and so can be used in breeding programmes to pass that resistance on to maize and also, perhaps, to develop a perennial form of maize.